Week 7 Race Wrap

                                                                            

      Westover provided another fast track this past Saturday with some great racing. Daniel Broadhead ran to victory in the Boys Varsity race in 15:19 with the ever improving Hakeem Mustafa of Shaw behind him in 15:34. Smiths Station crossed the Chattahoochee River and walked away with the Team title scoring 84 points led by 3rd place finisher Reid McClenny in 15:49. Lowndes Girls proved their #8 All Class ranking is no fluke winning the Girls title behind Megan Charbeneau who won the race in 18:36 besting Blessed Trinity's Natalie Kile in 18:48 who led the Lady Titans to a 2nd place team effort. Tanner Reid of Perry MS ran away from the field in the MS Boys race clocking a 11:20 and 5th grader Kelsey Morse of the Viking Running Club (Lowndes) had an amazing win on the Girls side in 12:54...Is she the next Grace Tinkey...

    

Ben Pleak of Marietta outlasts Fleming of Pope and Morgan Ainslie from Lassiter treads to a County Title.  Images by Pinion Photography

      The Cobb County Championship was held in the afternoon at the Cobb Corps Property in warm conditions which didn't seem to slow the runners very much. Ben Pleak of Marietta and Patrick Fleming of Pope fought it out to the finish line with Pleak taking a narrow win in 15:49 and Pope 15:50.  Walton came out on top for the team title by 2 points over Marietta. #1 Walton dominated the Girls race scoring just 38 points placing 4 runners in the top 10 spots with Alexa Womack once again leading the attack placing 2nd in 18:51. Morgan Ainslie of Lassiter added another individual title to her resume clocking a 18:45 leading the Lady Trojans to a 2nd place team finish. The MS Championship was held a day earlier comprised of Club teams as there are no MS Sports in Cobb and Grayson Rolf of the Jr Mustangs won the Boys 2 Mile overall in 11:12 The Junior Hoyas took the Boys team title placing 4 guys in the top 9 including runnerup Jacob Ennis in 11:23  The Lady Junior Hoyas made it a sweep taking 1st sweeping the first 3 spots led by Kira Stanley in 12:37

      A handful of schools from Tennessee invaded Clinton Farms on Saturday to no avail as the Marist Boys power trio swept positions 1-3 enroute to the team title including winner Michael Thurston in 15:51, Daniel Navarro at 16:04 and Jack Leahy not far back in 16:17 Woodward Academy bested powerful Oak Ridge (Tn) behind the effort of Drew Sands 4th place finish in 16:27, followed by Warner Robins' Nick Wilcox in 16:32  The War Eagles Girls were on their game taking the team title for another Marist sweep scoring 43 points led once again by soph Morgan Ilse in a very impressive run of 18:13 only bested by John's Creek  stalwart  Allie Buchalski who was flawless posting a 17:58  Oak Ridge did take home the 2nd place hardware back to Tennessee. It should be noted the Marist JV Girls had a team average time of 21:12 perhaps making them a Podium contender if they competed for another school. Coach Eric Heintze must have them drinking the Kool-Aid as well.

      Winder-Barrow defended their turf by sweeping the team titles at Bramlett Elementary on a tougher course this season. The Boys took a narrow win over Archer led by the 6th place finish of William Wright. Logan Hughes of Greenbrier HS won the individual title in 17:11  Archer was led by Kyle Dodd's runnerup finish at 17:28 followed by Rockdale County's Patrick Massie in 3rd at 17:32  The Lady Dogs came out on top of Archer as well scoring 29 points for a 8 point margin of victory led by Caitlin Connell's win in 20:37 followed by teamate Whitley Kennedy's 21:17  Habersham MS took the Boys team title and Darrell Woodall of Winder-Barrow MS won the individual title in 11:54  Micah Weathers also from WBMS won the MS Girls Individual in 12:47 while Habersham's girls took the 1st place team hardware back to Cornelia.

                                                                    Mountain Invitational

      The Mountain Invitational is a huge weekday meet held at Unicoi State Park a few miles above Helen. The North Hall Boys made a statement eating up the competition with 30 points led by their triumviarte of Witt Nix who won the individual title in 16:32 followed closely by Bryce Schuebert in 16:34 and the 5th place effort of Zack Hill in 16:54  This group is bringing back comparisons to the great North Hall squad of 2006 who dethroned Westminster in the AAA State race. South Forsyth took a narrow win over a game Hart County squad led by 3rd place individual Ross Morris in 16:43  Coach Borg's White County gals ran extremely well on their home course with a nice 20:45 team avg time easily taking the Girls team title. Jenna Gearing once again spearheaded the Lady Warriors efforts smoking the turf in 18:50 for another individual title. South Forsyth took 2nd in the team standings led by frosh Savannah Carnahan clocking a 19:34  Emma Garrison of Union placed 2nd in 19:23  Upstart Gainesville MS dominated the Boys team race behind Jake Hudson as he won the individual title in 11:20  ACS continued its winning ways taking the Girls team race by 6 points over Buford MS.  Audrey Honiotes from Hart County MS came away with the individual win in 12:22 over a very game Tanner Guest from Elbert MS in 12:33

                                                                             

      At the WACO Invitational Hephzibah had too many horses, cruising to a nice win with 28 points placing 7 runners in the top 12 led by the 2nd place effort of Justin Woodard in 17:21  Winning the race was Swainsboro's Dmicheal Reddick in 17:17  There was an unfortunate outburst at the finish line by a fan/parent? that sadly detracted from a competitive race. Frosh Kate Boland of Jones County was impressive leaving the field behind in 20:52 sparking the Jones County girls to a team win by 4 points over West Laurens paced by Kaylee Slade.

      LaGrange took a nice win at the Jaguar Invite this weekend over 6A Shiloh led by Andrew Coggins' 3rd place finish in 17:01 and has to move up in the rankings a hair. the Shiloh duo of Bryan Kamau and Nahom Solomon ran in tandem taking 1st and 2nd in 16:39 and 16:40 respectively. Spalding High came out on top in the girls standings teamwise in the Large School race and Sarah Bearden of LaGrange won the individual honors in 19:59

FSU Coverage       https://fl.milesplit.com/meets/115089-fsu-invitational-pre-state
Wendys Coverage https://nc.milesplit.com/meets/117985-wendys-invitational
Walt Disney            https://fl.milesplit.com/meets/106659-walt-disney-world-cross-country-classic